Statue of Alumnus Fred Gray
By Kenneth Mullinax/ASU
Alabama State University alumnus and renowned civil rights attorney, Fred Gray, recently added another honor to the long list of tributes that he has received over an illustrious career that spans more than seven decades.
On April 24, the Alabama State Bar Association dedicated a statue of Gray for his outstanding accomplishments in the area of civil and human rights law. The statue was erected outside of the association’s headquarters, located in the shadow of the Alabama State Capitol on Montgomery's Dexter Avenue.
The life-sized, bronze statue portrays Gray sitting on a granite bench. Carved on the sculpture are the words, “Lawyers Render Service," a phrase that Gray coined years ago.
“With humility and gratitude, I humbly accepted this award and recognition for all of those known and unknown heroes, clients and foot-soldiers, many (of) whose names are not known, but who all contributed to helping defeat Jim Crow segregation laws just as much as I did," Gray stated. "I never thought that one day a person like me, who was raised on Montgomery's west side, would have his image made into a statue to honor my career as an attorney. I thank all of those who made it possible."
ASU INSPIRED HIM TO COMBAT SEGREGATION
Gray is a member of ASU's Class of 1951. He was among a remarkable list of graduates that year, such as Selma's Dr. F.D. Reese and Birmingham's Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, who were notable figures in the modern Civil Rights Movement. Gray gained international recognition for his successful litigation on behalf of prominent civil rights leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, and Claudette Colvin. Among his many landmark cases was Williams vs. Wallace, in which he represented Hosea Williams and future congressman, John Lewis, during the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery March. Gray’s victory in that case helped lead to the passage of the Voting Rights Act by the United States Congress in August of that year.
"While at Alabama State, I was going to be a teacher, yet one of the University's professors, Dr. J.E. Pierce, inspired me and others to do our best to combat and end racial segregation in a peaceful manner," said Attorney Gray, who at 94 years of age still actively practices law. "I owe my legal career to Professor Pierce, and when I told my mother that I was no longer going to be a teacher, but would instead become an attorney, she asked me, ‘Why?’ I told her so that I could destroy everything segregated in the nation through the court system."
During his legendary career, Gray has been recognized numerous times for his heroic defense of the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Most significantly, in 2022, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, in a White House ceremony presided over by then-President Joe Biden.
OTHER NOTABLE ACHIEVEMENTS
ASU's alumnus has been at the forefront of many impactful causes and cases.
His accomplishments include being elected in 1970 as one of Alabama's first Black state legislators since the Reconstruction era, becoming the first Black president of the Alabama Bar Association in 2002, and successfully representing the Black men involved in the infamous Tuskegee Syphilis Study, a lawsuit Gray filed after he discovered the government intentionally let his clients remain untreated against the deadly disease. The last effort led to an official apology from President Bill Clinton in the East Room of the White House in 1997 to Gray and to many of the surviving victims and their families.
HIS FUTURE
Gray remains active and continues to practice law in Tuskegee, Alabama.
As to his future and how he intends to navigate it, Gray used the words quoted by his former client, Dr. King, in the icon's "I Have a Dream" speech, in which King utilized a Bible verse from the book of Amos.
At the end of the statue's dedication, Gray stated: "While the system doesn’t always deliver justice, I will continue working until ‘justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”